NID : 1019

1398/04/22

Tourism Sector Accounts for $8.11bn GDP Share

Head of Iran Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO) Ali Asghar Moonesan put the value share of tourism from gross domestic product (GDP) at $8.11 billion. According to the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), Iran’s share of tourism industry is equivalent to three percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the figure of which is negligible as compared to the share of regional and international rivals. Islamic Republic of Iran enjoys high potentials and capacities in tourism sector.He made the remarks late on Monday in an exclusive interview with IRNA and emphasized, “in the current situation, tourism sector can overcome many problems and bottlenecks overshadowing the country appropriately.” According to the planning defined by CHTHO, gross domestic product (GDP) can be promoted from three percent to above six percent, the rate of which is negligible as compared to the leading countries such as Turkey. If objectives of this are realized, Iran’s tourism share in gross domestic production (GDP) will hit from $8.11 billion to above $24 billion. Elsewhere in his remarks, Moonesan pointed to the 52% growth of entry of foreign tourists to the Islamic Republic of Iran and added, “according to statistics, the number of foreign tourists visited the country in the past year (ended March 20, 2019) registered a 52 percent growth as compared to the same period of last year.” He said that 7.8 million foreign tourists visited Iran in 2017.